It’s always a pleasure to share one of the best jazz podcasts in the world, run by my friend Santiago. Enjoy!
Month: October 2024
Though I normally loathe Rolling Stone, I have to compliment Rob Sheffield for his fine article on Bryan Ferry. It’s a worthy read. Click here to see the article.
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AGDISTIZ – Audaus Minor
Our friends at Kalamine Records introduce us to AGDISTIZ, a band who, if my memory serves me right, is from Romania. The drones here are sumptuous, like listening to a warm, thick drone during days when the cold is becoming crisper. Really a pleasant release if you can handle a bit of crunchiness to your drone.
Bassist Skúli Sverrisson has been a favorite of mine for well over 20 years. In this reissue, he teams with tenor saxophonist Óskar Guðjónsson in a quiet, minimal, yet somehow lush release of interplay between the two masters. From the release’s Bandcamp site:
“After Silence (Eftir þögn) was recorded in 2001 and marks the beginning of the Skúli Sverrisson & Óskar Guðjónsson duo. Their aesthetic was well described by Ben Ratliff of The New York Times when reviewed their second release: “If you put Stan Getz in an echo chamber, playing at the quietest volume possible, his breath audibly escaping around the reed, alongside someone playing a semi-acoustic bass with baroque-guitar technique, you’d get something roughly like “The Box Tree”… It’s a pulse-settler and an order-restorer: It could be the last thing you listen to before you go to bed, or something to lead you into sleep.” After Silence was originally released in 2002 by a local Icelandic label in a limited number of copies and soon became unavailable. Nevertheless, via burnt CDs, After Silence lived a healthy life and became a widely recognised underground favorite among musicians and music lovers around the world, who will without doubt celebrate this hidden gem finally being available to them again on streaming services.”
Raffaele Pezzella’s consistently astounding Unexplained Sounds Group is perhaps the best-curated label covering dark ambient and ritualistic music. They present former Sigillum S member Paolo L. Bandera’s latest release, and present notes originally posted from the Bandcamp release site here:
“Paolo L. Bandera (a.k.a. NG5361) has been propagating unconventional sounds and deviated cultural streams for decades with SIGILLUM S, together with Eraldo Bernocchi and other various acolytes.
On top of this, he has been generating noise textures in solo configuration as SSHE RETINA STIMULANTS, besides supporting and participating in many mutant projects by friends (THE SODALITY, IUGULA-THOR, ENSEMBLE SACRE GARCONS, SIDRA and more).
SSHE RETINA STIMULANTS devastates post-industrial sounds with a hyper – intellectual twist, in an apocalyptic context with morbidly visionary features: it’s a space where the most antagonist and abrasive currents get crazy, while pursuing a limitless synergy between underground acoustics and nightmarish visuals…under this moniker tens of works have been released through the years, in parallel with live performances in a lot of geographies.
Most recently, Paolo has started releasing some works under his own name, in order to differentiate more conceptually severe and abstract electronic productions from the SRS harsh volume.
Collaborations with other similarly alien projects are an important driver, including those with Aube, Mark Solotroff, Bad Sector, I Burn, The Fortieth Day, Gerstein, MSBR, Terence Hannum, Neil Jendon, The Land Of The Snow, Uncodified, Macelleria Mobile di Mezzanotte, LCB, Satanismo Calibro 9, Lorenzo Abbatoir, Avamposto Malato e many others.
Paolo has also written for various magazines (on music and other topics ), as well as having curated the two Italian editions of the Industrial Culture Handbook and having collaborated to RUMORI SACRI, a reference book on the Italian post-industrial music underground.”
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S.Ludenberg – Misfortune Soul’s
S.Ludenberg is a composer from Vyazma, Russia and he produces absolutely mournful, melancholic dungeon synth. A heartbreakingly depressing record, but I think that that was the feel he was going for. He succeeded.
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Bohmig – Birth In Birdsview
Another day, another unsolicited album, and another absolutely pleasant surprise! Bohmig are an Austrian band who produce a novocaine-like fuzziness housed in a dream pop vibe. This is a lo-fi affair, but with gentle vocals, a wispy guitar and, as mentioned, just enough buzz to give this an edge. Fine work.
These recordings are a sample of a 2-disc CD which I am not sure is still available, but since the passing of Steve Albini recently, K.K. Null has done the world a service by publishing these two tracks from that vaunted release.
Ernesto Díaz-Infante is a favorite on this blog, so any release of his is welcome, but Bryan Day is a new name for me. He is an instrument maker and improvisational musician who also runs Public Eyesore Records. This collaboration is quite dark, bordering on a cacophonous take reminding me of works by Derek Bailey or Loren (Mazzacane) Connors at their peak. This was rough listening, but thoroughly engaging.
scatterArchive continue to release astoundingly interesting albums, so kudos to them for maintaining such high quality in a genre that can be difficult to do so.
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Radian – Distorted Rooms
From Radian’s Bandcamp site:
“Radian’s visionary approach to composition speaks to lifetime working in forward-thinking music. Brandlmayr, Siewert and Norman share an unconventional, wildly imaginative approach to sound. The trio’s collective experience finds an expansive and egoless outlet in Distorted Rooms, uncovering new sonic universes. After nearly 30 years of making music together, their excitement for sonic experimentation is palpable.“